Rick and Mandy lived in the apartments behind our church in Kentucky. Their lives were a total mess. The two of them were constantly arguing. They drank and smoked. They had anger issues. Their home life was so bad that Social Services became involved. Before I left Kentucky, I met with them in the courthouse to try to get custody of their children back.
To be honest, I thought they were a lost cause. But God had other plans.
Mandy connected with me on Facebook years ago. She told me that her name is changed because God had changed her life. She gave me permission to share her story. We may not agree with all the choices that Mandy made in her life, but we can see God at work in her life. I thought Mandy’s story fit well with our hymn for this Sunday, “O Christians, Haste.”
The first verse: “O Christians, haste, your mission high fulfilling, to tell to all the world that God is light, that he who made all nations is not willing one soul should perish, lost in shades of night.” Then the refrain: “Publish glad tidings, tidings of peace, tidings of Jesus, redemption and release.”
Since the last time I saw Mandy, she divorced Rick after he abandoned her. She has remarried and has three children. She made the most difficult of decisions by allowing another family to adopt her two children from her previous marriage. The children were younger and had been in foster care with Social Services for so long that Mandy thought it would be best for them to live with another family. Presently, she is involved in her church, owns a daycare and a wrecker company with her husband and now they serve as foster parents to other children. She has also given up smoking and drinking. In her message to me she wrote, “I’m not proud of my past, obviously, but thanks to God I am at peace with it.”
I thought that all the assistance, counseling, and friendship that we had given to Mandy and Rick had fallen on deaf ears and hard hearts. But the harvest is plentiful! I am reminded of the apostle Paul who wrote: “[We] are servants, through whom you came to believe – as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow” (1 Corinthians 3:5-6). God used me and the other members of our congregation to plant the faith and others helped it grow. Or I am reminded of the promises of the Lord: “[My word] will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).
In Luke 10, Jesus sends out his larger group of 72 disciples to do mission work in his name. There is haste in Jesus’ sending. The harvest field of the nations is ripe. But the workers are few. No time to waste. God is not willing to lose one single soul.
Verse two: “Behold how many thousands still are lying bound in the dreary prison-house of sin
with none to tell them of the Savior's dying or of the life he died for them to win.”
Jesus sends these 72 as laborers into the harvest field to grab what is ripe for the picking. There is danger. They will be like defenseless lambs among ravenous wolves. But they are not going alone. The perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, goes with them. He sends them out empty handed, dependent, nothing of their own to offer the world. No purse, no backpack, no extra pair of sandals. For in this battle in which they are about to engage, they will not need those things. The Lord will provide. The people to whom the Lord is sending them have nothing, either. Even if they are physically wealthy, they are spiritually poor, trapped in the dreary prison-house of their sin.
Verse three: “Proclaim to ev'ry people, tongue, and nation that God, in whom they live and move, is love; tell how he stooped to save his lost creation and died on earth that they might live above.”
The disciples go. We go. We go to people of every nation, tribe, people, and language. We go to those who are hurting and crying, to those whose marriages are broken and lives are destitute, to those whom we make uncomfortable … and to those who make us uncomfortable.
We go. We speak. Not our words, but Jesus’ words. Not our authority, but his authority. Not our strength, but his strength. We are like lambs before the wolves. We are not there to fight the wolves … but to feed them the Word of God. We preach peace, heal the sick, and proclaim the kingdom of God. We tell how the King looked like a criminal; the Creator died for his creation; the Lord loved the lost that they might live with him forever.
Verse four: “Send heralds forth to bear the message glorious, give of your wealth to speed them on their way; pour out your soul for them in prayer victorious; O Christians, haste to bring the brighter day!”
We often think that Jesus has called certain individuals as heralds to do this mission work. We pay pastors and teachers to share the Word from the pulpit and in the classroom and make evangelism calls on new families. But we learn in this hymn and Gospel that Jesus appoints and sends ordinary people to share his Kingdom. He gives ordinary people the opportunity to be a part of his plan to bring his Kingdom near to all people.
I shared the story of Mandy with you because all of us have at one point been Mandy. And all of us know a Mandy somewhere in our lives. A broken marriage. Anger out of control. Too much alcohol. Escalating debt. Dead-end job. In and out of the hospital. Messed up family life. Nowhere to go. Nowhere to turn. In need of assistance.
But then one of the nameless, countless 72 came along and told you about Jesus. They told you about the innocent Lamb who lived among ravenous wolves. He felt the fangs, suffered the worst the world had to offer, entered the abyss of death and rose to life again. He appeared conquered by sin, but is now the Conqueror. He appeared devoured by death, but is now the Devourer. He is the crucified who is now the Victor. Not for himself, but for you. That his death be your death and his life be your life. To reach out to you. To forgive you in his name. To wash you in is his baptismal waters. To cover you in his blood. To nourish you with his body and blood. To convert you, change you, save you. To write your name in heaven. To send you as heralds as part of his nameless, countless 72.